Earthwreck by Thomas N. Scortia (book review).
I’ve seen the title ‘Earthwreck’ over the years but only recently picked up this 1978 reprint. Originally, it came out in 1974. Author Thomas N. Scortia (1926-1986) only wrote 8 novels, the first five co-written with Frank M. Robinson, a couple of anthology collections, and a lot of collaborations when I looked him up. ‘Earthwreck’ was his second novel alone.
Earth has two military-run bases in orbit: American and Russian. The situation is somewhat unclear, but terrorist groups from the Middle East and Japan possess nuclear weapons and have initiated a nuclear war on Earth. What they didn’t destroy, they contaminated. They even aimed a missile at the American satellite, which thankfully defused itself. Experts advised both satellite bases to remain vigilant. They send drones into the Earth’s atmosphere and find it loaded with strontium-90. No one would survive if they returned home.
It’s an interesting comparison between the two satellites. The American satellite has a variety of colors inside it to calm its crew. The Russian satellite is much more austere. Bearing in mind that Scortia wrote this book during the Cold War, he doesn’t ignore the two countries’ differences and how they get to work together putting aside their differences if they are going to make a colony on the Moon to survive for the next two centuries. The Americans may possess superior technology, but I appreciate Scortia’s observation that Russia relies on off-the-shelf items for everything, which is surprisingly insightful and accurate. They have more women, which you need to build another generation.
In order for the remnants of humanity in space to survive, they must gather resources and people and find a new home. While the initial focus is on the Moon, there is a counter-proposal for Mars, provided they can successfully hibernate most of their crews there. This is given some viability. It’s a bit of a grey area as to when this is happening. Indeed, the advancements in computer technology are comparable to those of the 1970s, whereas the breakthroughs in CPU technology, which occurred twenty years later and revolutionized our society, are significantly different. ‘Computer time’ is not synonymous with programming, contrary to popular belief.
This book spends a significant amount of time solving people’s problems and resolving Cold War elements, which may contain spoilers. If anything, the novel wraps up far too quickly. Publishers today often request at least a trilogy, demonstrating the significant progress we’ve made since then. Back then, authors had to condense a novel into 240 pages, so the cut-offs towards the end were not surprising. Having said that, the volume of ideas crammed into this book makes for an engaging read.
For a book written fifty years ago and what is going on now, Scortia brings a frightening reality to life, looking at some of the people on board the American and Russian satellites. Bear in mind when he wrote it back in the early 1970s, the space program with manned satellites was still nascent, and a lot of people, myself included, thought there would be a lot more exploration beyond the Apollo program. The fact that our current problems make this book even more pertinent, especially when there are far fewer people in space today.
GF Willmetts
November 2024
(pub: Coronet, 1978. 224 page paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: 0-340-19888-5)
